The number of first-time buyers rose to a seven year high – a jump of 25 per cent in one year alone, new figures suggest.

There were 30,000 first-time buyer sales in July, the highest number since August 2007, according to figures from LSL Property Services.

The average deposit paid also fell by as much as £3,000 – but first-time buyers are still finding £26,642 on average to put down on a property.

Change in fortunes? First-time buyer numbers are at a seven-year high, according to LSL Property Services

The figures add to a mixed picture of the housing market that has emerged in recent weeks.

While the LSL study suggests there is still plenty of activity at the lower end of the market, recent figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest house price growth is beginning to slow overall - down from 10.4 per cent in May to 10.2 per cent in the year to June.

Meanwhile Nationwide reported a drop in mortgage lending this week, in the latest evidence suggesting the housing market is beginning to slow down.

Britain’s
biggest building society said it lent £5.8 billion to homeowners in the
three months to the end of June, compared with £6.4 billion in the same
period last year.

LSL suggested the rise in the number of first-time buyers reflects a change in the fortunes of aspiring buyers, as improving economic conditions leave increasing numbers in a position where they can afford to buy.

But David
Newnes, director of estates Your Move and Reeds Rains, Part of LSL
Property Services group, added that the rising number may also have been
prompted by a recent increase in high LTV lending options, enabled by
Help to Buy.

'The
urgency among first-timers to lock into cheap fixes is propelling
activity at the bottom of the market,' he added. 'Fixed deals have
already started getting more expensive, as banks raise rates in
anticipation of a potential interest rate rise,' he said.

'Governor
Carney’s to-ing and fro-ing over the date of the base rate rises have
added confusion into the economic equation – encouraging more buyers to
act now, while the last of the cheap deals remain.'

Improvement? While the number of first-time buyer sales has risen by a quarter, the average price has also inched up by eight per cent

First-time
buyers are also forking out an increasing proportion of their income on
mortgage payments, as rates on first-time buyer loans rise for the
fourth consecutive month.

The proportion is likely to rise again in the coming months as interest rates start to rise.

The
average sum paid for a first property has also shot up by eight per
cent – the equivalent of £9,000 on the average property – in the last
year alone.

But
despite rocketing prices, there are still not enough new homes being
built to address a national housing shortage, campaigners have warned.

Not plain sailing:

Some
36,230 houses were started during the three months to June, an 18 per
cent increase on last year, according to figures from the Department for
Communities and Local Government.

New house completions reached 114,440 in the year, up seven per cent on the previous year.

But
campaign group Shelter said the rise was a 'drop in the ocean'. It said
completions were less than half of the 250,000 needed.

Meanwhile
a second study released today suggests the North-South divide over the
cost of a home has widened even further, with asking prices in London 42
per cent higher than before the recession.

House
sellers' asking prices in Cambridgeshire, Berkshire, Surrey and the
capital have made the strongest gains since the financial crisis struck,
according to the figures from property website Rightmove.

But
those in County Durham, the Isle of Wight, West Yorkshire and Teesside
have the furthest distance still to recover, according to the website.

With an average price tag of £1.5million, average asking prices in central London and the City now tower 41.9 per cent above the levels seen when the housing market was at its pre-crisis peak in May 2008, Rightmove said.

West London, which like central London has been a strong pull for wealthy overseas investors, has seen the next strongest price growth since the previous peak of the market, with average property asking prices now standing at £564,192, which is 41.7 per cent higher than in May 2008.

Regional disparity: The average sum paid for a property by first-time buyers in the capital is significantly higher than their counterparts further north

The study
found that at the other end of the scale, property prices in County
Durham had the biggest percentage jump still left to climb to reach
their levels at the previous peak of the market.

The
average asking price in County Durham stands at £114,554, which is 13.4
per cent below the typical amount requested by sellers in May 2008.

In
Teesside and West Yorkshire, asking prices are still around 9.1 per
cent below 2008 levels, while in the Isle of Wight they still have a
10.7 per cent climb.

All areas of London have seen asking prices increase by at least 30 per cent when compared with May 2008, Rightmove said.

Miles
Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: 'While at a high level the South
has out-performed the North, being able to dig underneath that courtesy
of the millions of properties advertised on Rightmove since 2001 shows a
really varied county versus county performance.'